The present invention relates to a refrigeration device, such as a refrigerator or freezer cabinet, with a pressure equalization valve which serves to prevent a vacuum occurring in the interior of the refrigeration device.
Each time that the door of a refrigeration device is opened, warm air enters, which then cools down again when the door is closed and creates a vacuum, through which the door is sucked against the front side of the chassis. This vacuum leads to the door remaining very difficult to open after it has been closed until such time as the pressure between interior and surroundings is equalized again. Although the pressure is always equalized again after some time, since the seal fitted between the door and the front side of the chassis of the refrigerator does not form a completely airtight seal, the general aim is to keep the leakage rate of this seal as low as possible, since air which is exchanged by way of leaks between the interior and the surroundings also always leads to an undesired entry of heat and moisture into the interior. The more precisely the refrigerator is made and the smaller the leakage rate is as a result, the longer the vacuum persists after the closure of the door.
Diverse door opening mechanisms have been proposed to solve the problem, which employ a lever or the like to amplify the force exerted by a user on a door handle for opening the door in order to prize the door away from the chassis against any vacuum obtaining in the interior.
Such door opening mechanisms necessarily comprise movable parts which are subjected during operation to considerable forces, so that they can eventually wear and malfunction.
In order to be able to open the door easily at any time, it has further been proposed that a pressure equalization valve be fitted into the housing wall of such a device, which, in the event of a vacuum obtaining in the interior, lets air flow in from the outside and which closes as soon as the pressure between the surroundings and the interior is equalized, so that an uncontrolled entry of heat and moisture into the interior is excluded.
It has been shown in practice that such a pressure equalization valve has a tendency to freeze solid during the operation of the refrigerator, so that the pressure is no longer equalized via the valve.